Long Time No Blog...Surfers Paradise to Townsville

So I know I've been slacking on updating lately but internet has not been easily found.

We've gone from Surfers Paradise to Glass House Mountains, To Tin Can Bay then to Rockhampton on to Sarina/Mackay from there to Townsville and then finally now we are on our way to Cairns, The last stop on our tour.

So Glass House Mountains, was a friggen small town at the base of a set of mountains, we were staying there because it is very close ( about 15 mins) from the Australia Zoo, Which we were going to for Krys' birthday on the 19th. We were staying in a cute little motel/room/suite thingy. Haha, we visited the mountains on the first day and then on Sunday ventured to the Zoo which I loved! I love animals and this place had a ton of them ( duuhh its a zoo I know) It was also kinda sad because for those of you that dont know the Australia Zoo was the home to Steve Irwin and his family still owns it, theres pictures of him everywhere and all these videos of him. But the Zoo was amazing, the best zoo i've ever been too. We watched a show in the Croceaceum, and Shawn won a prize for acting like a big monkey! Krystal and I also got to hold another Koala together and I bought her that picture as a little birthday present, we also got to hold an aligator ( which I got another picture of!!) and petted some more kangaroos, visited the elephants, saw some massive crocs and had an amazing day.

Before I left edmonton I got a little bag from Krystals grandma which had some stuff for the family including krystals birthday present, a new iPod touch. When I got to Australia krystal kept telling me about how her ipod broke. It was so hard for me to not tell her about her present, I'm not good at keeping secrets! She kept looking at mine telling me how much she wanted one, So I was very happy for her on her birthday to get one! She also got a book and I bought her 2 shirts while we were in Australia. We had a nice birthday supper in our little suite thing and the next day we headed for Tin Can Bay.

Tin Can Bay was just a one night stop on our way up the coast. We got there and Shawn, Kim, Krystal and I decided to go check out a beach close by. It was AMAZING I have never been in water so warm, I loved it. Our last day in surfers paradise we went to the beach but it was cold and rainy and only shawn and I ventured in. So this was a very nice change, its still hard to believe that the water and temperature gets warmer as we travel north, I understand its because thats closer to the equator but its still weird!One of the reasons we stoped in Tin Can Bay was that in the mornings you can go to the marina there and a pod of wild dolphins comes in and you can get a chance to feed them. They are such beautiful animals but it was so sad since they are wild they have a the cuts and scrapes to prove it, one was even missing part of its fin! but it was still a crazy expereince!

So from there we went to Rockhampton, I love the name of this town it was so fun to say! We were there for two days and the first day we got there we went for supper to the hogs breath cafe, we found this place in port MaQuarie and it has such good food! the second day we headed out to the beach, which we had all to ourselves as it was a wednesday, Krystal was a little concerned because there was very few people there and no one was on the sand. Well we found out it was because the sand was either very wet or very very hot. The water was amazing though! we are now past all the surf beaches so there was very little waves and when there was they were small ones so it was nice to actually swim! I got a little burned on my legs but not to badly. We had a good supper in our room and watched some Criminal Minds, which i have missed very badly!! and I also learned how to play Skip-Bo, Which I'm not so good at!

From there we were driving to Mackay, just a few kms away from there is a place called Sarina, which has a mini sugar mill to show what goes on in the big ones, we went on a tour of some old machinery and then got to watch some sugar kane being turned into sugar, we then got to tase some of it! it was very yummy. From there we continued on to mackay. We didnt do much there, we went to the mall to pick up some stuff ( I had finished Twilight in Glass House Mountains and was desperate to get started on New Moon!!)

We left Mackay and headed onto Townsville. We were staying there for 2 nights and at first had a little bit of trouble finding a place to stay since it was a friday. But we found a holiday apartment place that had a sweet movie chanel so that was how we spend some downtime. When we arrived there we drove down a road called The Strand that had a bunch of hotels and some resteraunts and it ended up not being to far from where we were staying so Krystal and I decided to go and venture out for dinner on our own. We started walking down the street and ended up finding quite a few bars and not so many resteraunts. The first one we saw looked kind of fancy so we decided to keep looking. Well we found one that looked more like our kind of place but it was all full except for the lounge and thats not what we wanted. So we went to the first one, the white resteraunt as we called it, and got a table. Well we found out it was a seafood resteraunt (Neither Krystal or I really like seafood) and It was quite pricey. We ended up finding something we each liked, krystal and shrimp and I had a canneloni dish. We met a very nice slightly intoxicated older gentleman who was out for dinner with his family and he took quite a taking into what we were eating. All in all it was a good dinner and he made it quite interesting.
The second day we went to the Rock Pool which is built beside the ocean and has all ocean water in it but has grates and nets up to block out stingers (Jellyfish) It was a very nice and relaxing day by the water. On Sunday we woke up to leave and stoped off at a local Salvation Army to catch the morning service. It was a nice change from the one in Dee Why as there was more people our age and more contemporary music.

From there we made the journey up to Cairns. Talk to you then!

More Pictures!!

The plane wing over the ocean!

Me with the Sydney Harbour Bridge!

The Sydney Opera House!

Krystal & I in the Royal Botanic Gardens! There was nasty Eels in that pond!

The Waves on Bondi Beach were a lot higher than I though they'd be

Krystal & I on Bondi Beach!

Me on Bondi Beach!!

Krystal & I in the Ocean!

Krystal & I on Manly Beach

Krystal & I in Port Maquarie

The Moon on the shorline in Port Maquarie

I wonder if it will let me post pictures now....

YES IT DID!!!!!

A Seal and Myself at the Sydney Aquarium

A shark at the Sydney Aquarium

My meal at McDonalds in Sydney

The Ugggglllyyyyy trucks that are all over the place

A Shark at the Sydney Aquarium

The Australian Big Brother house enterance

A Giant shark head at Dreamworld

The Wiggles World enterance at Dreamworld!

Me and a Koala!!!!

Some of the many Kangaroos at Dreamworld. There was soooo many.

Me and a Kangaroo!!

Ugh

Okayyy so my internet is friggen slow so I cant do pictures right now, but I will asap!

Dreamworld!... and Some cuddly friends!

We Arrived in Surfers Paradise yesterday and spent that resting from our long drive. Krystal and I took a walk on the beach and went in the hotel pool before catching up on some missed internet time!

  

Today Krystal and I went to Dreamworld which is like an Amuesement Park and Zoo kinda combined in one. We got there when it opened at 10 and we stayed till 5. The rides were pretty cool, We went on 2 water ones and them some other thrill ones. The park is divided into a bunch of areas theres Nickelodoen Central and Australian Wildlife Experience (theres a bunch of animals there) Theres another one called Gold Rush County, Tiger Island (pretty self explanitory - Such cute tigers!) Then theres Dream world studios which houses...... The Australia Big Brother House!! I though that was pretty sweet! You get to walk through the house and see all the behind the scences stuff and then walk through the rooms. It probably would have been sweeter if we saw the show but it was still pretty cool. We've been finding this in australia have been quite more expensive than canada and this was no different - at the house you can pay to get your picture takin in the diary chair, for 20$! and you cant use your own cameras. We thought that was ridiculous! And its crazy just how little privacy they have!

Another are is called Wiggles World, Based off of the show The Wiggles, and As I walked through there I know Jonah would have just loved it there! I took tons of pictures and even a video, Everything there is Wiggles, the Rides the food places - All wiggles all the time!

  

But the best part of the entire day was Krystal and I got to hold KOALAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

it was sooo exciting, they are so cute and cuddly and AH I just loved them! We even got our picture taken with them! ( I will post it later!) Also with the Koalas is a Kangaroo Enclosure, There was like 10-15 Kangaroos just hanging out, no trainers or anything just them hanging out, you can go up to them and pet them and take pictures. It was so much fun! It got me excited for the Australia Zoo on Sunday!!

  

Today Krystal and I were getting food and the woman serving us said "where are you from? you have such strong accents" we found that quite funny seeing as we dont think we have the accents but they do! Also when we told her we were from Canada she said she had never seen snow before, I found that crazy to think some people havent seen snow before - I've seen enough to last me a life time!

  

We did that allllllll day and then just came back to the hotel. I'm quite sleepy and plan on going to bed pretty early to rest up for our beach day tomorrow ( hopefully!)

Thats all from Surfers Paradise! I'll post some pics below!

The Beach!!!

Since its Sunday we decided to find a Corps to go to, we looked at the 2 closest towhere we are staying. We Google'd them and could get pictures of the two. The firstone in manly looked slightly sketchy, So we decided to go to the other one in Dee Why.

When we got there we realized that it was a smaller corps made up of mostly retiredofficers. We met one cute lady who is a retired Colonel whos name was Leah, She askedKrystal to sing the Canadian National Anthem. As shes singing Leah Taps my back and Says "Stand up Straight this is your anthem" So there we were Krystal singing theAnthem and me standing at attention in a Salvation Army in Australia...

After that we decided to go to Manly Beach. It was my very first time swimmingin the ocean and it was pretty darn cool. Krystal and I took a Ton of picturesand Did some Body Surfing, though I think we need some more practice as we inhaleda ton of water.
We did a lot of laying out on the beach, and felt the effects later that nigght.We were both sooooo burned. Which have now turned into tans.

Sharks & Sea Lions Oh Myyyy

So on the first night I went to sleep at like 830pm, and I knew that wasnt such agood idea but I did it none-the-less. So I woke up at 630am and just kinda layedthere untill 8 when I fell asleep again. Then finally Krystal, Rebecca and I wokeup at 11.

So I wanted to get my shopping done as soon as possible so we headed to a outdoormarket/shopping area called The Rocks. There was tons of sweet shops to look around.we bought some fudge and Gellato!!!! (I Havent had good Gelato since Italy and Ihave missed it so!!) Then I bought my mommy some Uggs, and Some stuff for Logan &Abby!

We then headed to the Sydney Aquarium and that was freakin cool! I had my Camera with me(duhhhh) and took some pretty awesome pictures. We saw Seals, Sharks, Eels,Old wife fish's, Jew fish's, Lots of Rays and lots of other kinds of fishys.

Now Krystal and I had a little issue at the Aqaurium... we would be walking throughand would here parents and children alike saying "theres nemo or theres dory" atfirst it was cute, but it soon got very very annoying, but what can you do.
That night for supper we went to Mcdonals, It was so sweet cause they have McCafé'shere! and Also 'Frozen Cokes' which are coke slurpees!
Day 2 done!

Dayyyy 1

Oct 10
So after 15 hours of flying I landed in Sydney, Now on the plane we were told thatAustralia has pretty intense laws about bringing stuff in that might hurt thereagriculture. So we had to answer this declaration form thing, then once we got offthe plan we had to go through Boarder Security and Quarantine, It took for freakinever and I was so scared that something in my bag was going to be Illegal, but itwas all good!

So I came out and saw Krystal, Kim & Shawn waiting for me! and I was soooo excitedfinally be there after lonnngg amounts of travelling.
So we went back to our hostel in a town called Collowroy which is just outside ofSydney and got ready for the day.

We decided to go see the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. It was pretty cool to actually get to see those upclose and it kinda made it sink in that I wasactually in Australia. So right outside the Opera house is the Royal Botanic Gardensso we decided to walk through there and go and get some food. There was a lot of palmtrees and flowers and more trees. It was all pretty sweet till we got to the cafeand looked up and saw that there was HUNDREDS of yucky Bats hanging from the trees.I`m friggen terrified of bats so I was not excited at all! Everyone formed a humanwall around me so they wouldnt attack me, I was quite thankful for that.Then on the way back we walked by this pretty fountain and read a sign saying that there was Eels in the pond, and thate even when they drain the pond the eels return!So we were on the lookout for the eels and finally we spotted one, they are nastyyand creepy looking so we took a few pictures and left.

So before we headed back to the hostel we decided to go check out Bondi Beach, Itwas quite massive and we decided to talk around the shore, but we didnt anticipatethe waves comming up as high as they did. So we got quite wet!
Thats it for the first dayyy!
<3

quick update.
in san fran, after a hella long walk. i am so stressed, wannnna sleep and just get on the plane and get to sydney and see her cousin.i friggen miss my home, and it sucks.
but i know this will be an amazing trip. hopefully i get a good seat on the plan and can get some rest.
talk to you in sydney!

25 days + 1 Backpack = ...Scared

So when I first found out I was going to Australia I was sooooo excited. But then a though pop'd into my mind... "What will I pack?"

Knowing that The Way's were only taking backpacks made me think if of what I was going to bring.

Now I am no light packer. I go to camp for a week and bring 4 MASSIVE suitcases, Ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you that I over pack for everything. But for this amazing 25 day journey I, Sarah, will be travelling with only ONE backpack - Mind you it is a quite large one. This is still one of the major parts that freaks me out!

We'll see how the packing goes! Wish me luck!

This Is the Lovely Backpack I will be taking with me on the trip, Thanks to the lovely Erin for lending it to me!

2 Days and Counting =)

10 Days...

In 10 days I will be here! Sydney, Australia. I cant believe it is so close. This trip started off just as a joke and now I am actually going. I leave at 6pm on the 8th and after 21 hrs total of flying I will arrive on Oct 10th. I fly to San Francisco and have a 4 hour layover and then take the 15.5 hr flight to Sydney. I'm slightly nervous for the long flight. When I flew to Paris it was 11 hours and didn't feel to well so I'm hoping it wont happen again!

I'm so excited to see Krystal and the rest of the Way's, I can't wait for the amazing experience, travelling up the eastern coast for 25 days! It will just be kinda interesting to be living out of a backpack for 25 days.. I am normally quite the heavy packer so this will be a good test for me!

I will be updating along the way so keep reading!